Chapter 50: Memories become poisonous, every word hurts the heart
The other half is about that dark night in the farmyard when I clumsily made medicine for her under the moonlight.
The other half is the "Candle Shadow" who took her father's life with a sword in the bloody file.
And at this moment, these two halves overlapped hideously, cruelly, and unquestionably...
Boom!
All the sweet memories at this moment fermented into the most vicious and deadly poison, flowing along her blood, madly corroding her internal organs, and torturing every inch of her mind.
She recalled the stormy valley where he had descended like a god, pulling her from the dead. At the time, she had thought it was a ray of hope in despair, a gift from heaven. Now, thinking about it, what kind of gift was that? It was clearly the executioner's impulsive prank, after admiring his own masterpiece! Did he find it particularly amusing to watch his enemy's daughter tremble in his arms?
She recalled that secret farmyard, the first time he cooked for her, that bowl of bitterly salty meat porridge. At the time, she'd thought it was the clumsiness and cuteness of a melting iceberg. Now, thinking about it, what kind of cuteness was that? It was clearly the disguise of a venomous snake before hunting! Every bite he fed her was wrapped in a monstrous lie and mockery!
She recalled the night before their separation, when she mustered all her courage and confessed her life story to him, sharing her hatred. She'd mistaken his silent, compassionate gaze for tenderness, a tender empathy. Now, thinking back, what kind of tenderness was that? How condescending! As he listened to her recount her father's murder, as she gritted her teeth and muttered "Zhuying's" name, what was he thinking? Was he thinking, this woman is so pitiful, so pathetic, like a puppet being pulled by strings, unaware that her enemy is standing right before her!
What made her feel most heartbroken was his promise: "I will avenge you."
These words, at this moment, were like a red-hot iron, burning fiercely into her soul and leaving an indelible mark of shame.
The murderer said to her, I will help you avenge.
Is there any joke in this world more absurd, more ridiculous, and more cruel than this?
He saved her, took care of her, helped her, and treated her well... Turns out, I was just watching a huge joke.
And she is the joke itself.
"puff--"
Su Qinghan could no longer suppress the surging blood in her heart, and a mouthful of blood suddenly spurted out, staining the green grass in front of her red and splashing her snow-white dress, like a suddenly blooming, desperate plum blossom.
The sweet and fishy smell of rust pulled her back to reality from the brink of collapse.
She slowly raised her head. Her eyes, once as cold as stars, were now a dead blood red. All the love, tenderness, and hope had been burned away in that instant, leaving only a raging hatred that could burn the world to ashes.
She held Han Jiangxue's hand, which finally stopped shaking and became as steady as a piece of ten-thousand-year-old black ice.
Across from him, Chen Ye watched her spit blood, the last glimmer of light in her eyes completely extinguished. His heart felt like it was being pierced repeatedly by countless steel needles. He knew that from this moment on, he had personally killed Su Qinghan, the one who would smile at him and rely on him.
He completed his first step.
But the pain of success almost tore him apart. He could only suppress the urge to go forward and support her, forcing himself to stand there indifferently like a statue.
He wanted her to hate him.
The deeper the hatred, the better.
"Why……"
Su Qinghan finally spoke, his voice hoarse as if two pieces of sand were rubbing against each other, and every word was filled with the pain of crying blood, "You have been lying to me all this time?!!"
This question was more of a desperate outburst than a search for an answer. The pain and betrayal contained in the voice seemed to make the wind in the bamboo forest stagnate.
"From the very beginning, from the Yangzhou Canal Governor's Mansion, to the dilapidated temple in Luoyang, and then to that valley... every time you appeared, it was an elaborate hoax, right?" Her voice grew louder and sharper, like a dying cuckoo. "You watched me rush for revenge, watched me chase clues like a headless chicken, watched me tell you everything... Don't you think I'm so stupid? So ridiculous?!"
The night was silent. He knew that any explanation would be meaningless at this moment. But he spoke anyway. He didn't want her to live with all her misunderstandings about him for the rest of her life.
"In the courtyard," his voice was soft and deep, as if trying to convey a trace of warmth that had long been lost, "not a single word was a lie."
That was the only real time in his life.
He loves her, it's true.
He wanted to protect her, it was true.
It was also true that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
But to Su Qinghan, this sentence was the last straw that broke her sanity. It was the biggest lie she had ever heard!
"lie!!!"
Su Qinghan's emotions completely spiraled out of control, and she let out a hysterical scream, "Even now, you're still lying to me! You're still using your cheap tenderness to humiliate me!"
She took a sudden step forward, the tip of the sword in her hand almost touching Shen Ye's throat. She stared into his eyes, trying to find the slightest trace of hypocrisy or evasion in them.
But she was disappointed.
There was no evasion in Chen Ye's eyes, only a bottomless sorrow and a kind of calmness that she couldn't understand. It was as if what he said was the truth.
This frankness angered Su Qinghan even more.
"Not a single one of them is a lie?" She laughed bitterly, her laughter piercing the ears in the silent bamboo forest. Tears streamed from her eyes as she laughed so hard. "Okay! You said your feelings are real, so let me ask you..."
She suddenly stopped laughing, and the expression on her face turned extremely ferocious in an instant. She used all her strength to squeeze out the most core and bloody question from between her teeth:
"What about my father!!!"
This roar seemed to have drained all her vitality.
She doesn't need an answer.
She was just accusing!
Accusing him of how he could say he loved her while at the same time enjoying the fact that he was the murderer of his father with a clear conscience!
"Su Zhenting! Su Zhenting, the Minister of Revenue!" She raised her sword, pointed it at Chen Ye, and roared word by word, each word like a piece of bloody meat. "He is an upright man with clean hands! He just blocked someone's way, and you, the stink bugs hiding in the gutter, are going to kill him like a chicken! What did he do wrong?!"
"When you killed him, did you ever think that he had a family? Did you ever think that he had a daughter waiting for him to come home?!"
"You killed him! You killed him!!"
Su Qinghan completely collapsed. She no longer questioned the details of deception and emotions. Everything seemed so insignificant in the face of the four words "revenge for the murder of my father."
Chen Ye looked at her face, which was covered in tears and tortured by hatred, and he knew that the time had come.
He did not defend himself.
There's no saying that it was a task he couldn't choose.
He didn't say that he had no idea about the target at the time.
It didn't even say that the person who gave the order was actually Prince Ning.
Because all of this is meaningless.
He murdered the person.
He must bear this sin.
He simply stared at her quietly, all the sadness and pain in his eyes slowly fading, ultimately transforming into a strange calm. It was as if he had finally shed the incredibly heavy disguise of "Shen Ye" and transformed back into the pure, cold, emotionless killing tool that was "Zhu Ying."
He spoke to her slowly and clearly in an almost indifferent tone:
"Yes. I killed him."
He admitted it.
So easy, so clean.
This admission was more devastating than any explanation. It completely shattered the last shred of unrealistic fantasy in Su Qinghan's heart.
"Back then, with that sword, I pierced his heart." Chen Ye continued, his voice flat, as if he was recounting something completely unrelated to him, but every word was like a knife, cutting flesh and blood into Su Qinghan's heart. "He didn't even have a chance to see my face before he fell. Like your father, there are many others who fell at my feet. Zhang Cheng, the head of the Ministry of Personnel, Li Mu, the Junior Secretary of the Dali Temple, Wang Kui, the General of Zhenyuan... I can't remember them all."
"To me, they are just a name on a mission file, a bounty. Your father, Su Zhenting, is no different."
He is lying.
Of course he remembers.
He remembered it clearly. It was his formal pledge of allegiance to the assassin, the starting point of his career. He even remembered the wind that night, and the warmth of the blood on the back of his hand.
But he had to say it.
He must portray himself as a complete and inhuman demon.
He wanted to make the "Chen Ye" in her heart die completely, leaving only an enemy "Zhu Ying" who was worthy of her hatred with all her heart.
Only in this way would she not hesitate when she killed him.
Only in this way, after she kills him, can she be free.
“You… bastard!!!”
Su Qinghan's eyes were red with anger at his cold-blooded words. She could no longer control herself, and the devastating hatred erupted like a volcano, instantly devouring the last shred of her rationality.
She let out a roar that was not like a human voice, and the internal force of "Canglang Jue" in her body circulated wildly and condensed on the sword body.
The long sword emitted a clear humming sound, and the blade was filled with cold air, as if even the surrounding moonlight was frozen.
She raised her sword, pointing the tip of the sword at the man whom she once loved to the bone but now hated to the bone.
“I’m going to kill you—!!!”
With this blood-curdling roar, she moved.
His figure was as fast as lightning and his sword shone like snow.
The "Hanjiangxue" sword technique, this family heirloom that she had practiced for more than ten years, for the first time carried such strong and pure hatred and murderous intent, enveloping the man she once loved.
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